Reformed Theology Pt 5 | The Abrahamic Covenant: The Covenant and the Sign

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November 14, 2021 Pastor Jeff Rice

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Let's pray. Oh God, Lord, without your spirit right now is not possible.
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Lord, we pray in the name of your beloved Son, Jesus, that you through your spirit will speak to us, that despite my failure and my inability to speak, that you will speak to your people.
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I pray in Christ's holy name. Amen. So this will be the fifth message in our
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Reformed Theology series. We're currently going through the book of Hebrews and we've stopped at chapter 6 verse 12 because chapter 6 verses 13 and onward is going to be dealing with covenant theology.
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And I've made this big announcement that Reformed Theology is covenant theology.
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And so as a Reformed confessional church, I want to establish what it is that we believe when it comes to this subject.
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And here in an outline that were some of the topics that we will be covering. Confessional, which is speaking of the confession, and we see that that confession is an overarching umbrella of the rest of the topics.
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We have confessional, covenantal, Calvinistic, law and gospel distinction, the ordinary means of grace, and the five solas of the
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Reformation. And once we're done with this, we'll pick back up in Hebrews chapter 6 beginning in verse 13.
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Our outline for covenantal is the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace.
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This week we'll be looking at the covenant of works for the fourth time.
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And my outline is as follows. The Adamic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the
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Mosaic covenant, and the Davidic covenant. Our focus today again is on the
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Abrahamic covenant. This covenant seems to be revealed in three stages.
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We have the call, which we looked at last week, the covenant, and the sign.
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For our text today, we will be looking at Genesis chapter 15 verses 1 through 20, and Genesis chapter 17, 1 through 14.
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Genesis 15, 1 through 20. Genesis 15, 1 through 20.
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Now before we read that, as we transition, I want to do a quick recap. I brought forth the first day, the covenant of redemption.
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And I pointed how Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning
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God created the heavens and the earth. That is not the beginning. That if you want to know the beginning, we have to go to Ephesians chapter 1.
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Ephesians chapter 1 tells us about the covenant of redemption. How God purposed to save a people, and in doing so, he,
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Jesus Christ, he sends his only son to accomplish that purpose.
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The purpose that God purposed. God purposed. God the Father purposed to save a people.
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God the Son accomplishes that purpose by coming, by the creator entering creation, the infinite becoming finite.
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Jesus Christ wrapped in human flesh. The hypostatic union. The hypostatic union.
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God being, Jesus being fully God, truly God, and truly man. And he accomplishes that purpose in his sufferings.
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His death, burial, and resurrection. And that the Holy Spirit applies the purpose.
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That the Holy Spirit is sent to us by the Father and the Son to apply the purpose.
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What was the purpose? To redeem a people. Jesus Christ accomplishes that purpose and through that message of what
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Christ Jesus has done. Him living the life that we could not live in. Him dying the death that we deserve to die.
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That message of what he has accomplished is how the Holy Spirit applies the purpose.
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But it's through that message. And how is that message delivered?
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By us. By his people. Jesus says that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him to go and to make disciples, to baptize, and to teach.
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How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God.
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That the only way anyone can be born again to be given faith is that they have to hear the word of God.
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That you and I who have received Christ by faith must proclaim, must herald this message.
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And I mentioned that the way that that I do it might not look the same as the way you do it, but it has to be the same message.
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It could be catechizing your children, mothers. And I pointed out how Jerry went on a fishing trip and he used that time to witness to a friend.
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Like I don't know what it looks like in your day -to -day life, but I know without a doubt that you and I need to be a witness for Jesus Christ.
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Revelation says that we will overcome two ways by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
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The blood of the lamb, what Christ Jesus has done. Living the life we could not live and dying the death that we deserve to die.
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And the word of our testimony. This is what I was, but since he has done this, this is what
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I am now. He's changed me. I'm no longer the same. And we also looked at the
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Edemic Covenant. How after this takes place between the
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Godhead, this purpose that sets forth this journey, God created man in his own image.
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And he put Adam into a garden and he gave him a covenant, the Edemic Covenant. And because Adam broke that covenant, that you and I have fallen in Adam.
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That because of Adam's sin, you and I are born carrying his sin.
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The Bible teaches in our confession, teaches that we have inherited the guilt of Adam.
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All men have fallen in Adam. So this is where comes the original sin, the fall of man.
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And then we looked at the Abrahamic Covenant is God choosing a person who is
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Abram and he picks him out among pagans. He picks him out among pagans who
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Abraham himself was born under the Edemic Covenant. And but through Abraham, he was going to make a nation come from this one man.
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And this nation would not be under the Edemic Covenant, but they would be the
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Abrahamic Covenant. That he was creating a kingdom. He was taking the people from amidst the people to create a kingdom.
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And that from this bloodline would be the Christ, the son of the living God. So that's just a quick recap.
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I try to shorten it from the recap I did last week. So that takes us to the second point of this, and that's the covenant.
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And so it's found in chapter 15, we have four different themes.
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So in chapter 15, we have four different themes that are taking place. One, we have the offspring of Abram.
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Two, the preparation of the covenant. Three, the prophecy concerning the offspring.
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And then four, we have the covenant. And as we transition again, last week we looked at the call, how
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God called Abraham. We looked at Genesis chapter 12, how God called
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Abraham from amongst paganism to follow the one and true God. In which this was the precursor, the forerunner to the covenant.
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This week we will look at the covenant and also the sign of the covenant. Now Genesis 15, as we're going through this, we're going to be looking at it in themes.
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We're not going to go through verse by verse as we would, as we did last week, and as we do through the book of Hebrews.
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We're just going to be looking at it as in groups of themes. So to our first point, the offspring of Abram.
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It's found in Genesis 15, one through six. After these things, the word of the
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Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not,
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Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be great.
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But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me?
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For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
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And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.
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And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, the word of Yahweh. This man shall not be your heir.
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Your own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said,
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Look toward the heavens and number the stars, if you are able to number them. Then he said to him,
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So shall your offspring be. Verse six, And he believed the
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Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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Right here in the very beginning, we have the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
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Abraham believed the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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Remember in the Edemic Covenant, because of Adam's sin, you and I, when we are born, we are credited, we are counted with the unrighteousness of Adam.
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Right here it establishes the righteousness of faith. How is it in this
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Abrahamic Covenant is a man right with God? By believing.
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And when you believe, you are credited, counted righteous. Now let's look to the
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New Testament real quick. Look at Romans chapter four, Romans chapter four, verses one through 12.
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I'll read through this a little quicker. Romans chapter four, verses one through 12.
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What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
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What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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Right here, it's going to go into an exposition of what that means. Now to the one who works, his wages is not counted as a gift, but as his due.
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And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
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Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one who would come to whom
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God would count righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
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Blessed is a man against whom the Lord will not count his sins. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, speaking of the
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Jew, or also for the uncircumcised? Speaking of the Gentile. For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
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How then was it counted to him? Was it not before or after he had been circumcised?
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It was not after, but it was before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.
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Here's the purpose. The purpose was to make him the father of us all who have, who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.
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And to make him the father of the circumcised, who were not merely circumcised, but who walk in the footsteps of faith that our father
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Abraham had before he was circumcised. Now look at chapter 5 verse 1.
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Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
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So this promise is coming off of the fact that God had promised an offspring to Abraham, and that this offspring would inherit the land.
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And chapter 5 is telling us, therefore, since Abraham, since David was justified by faith, declared righteous, they believed
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God and was counted with righteousness. He says, therefore, since that's true, and therefore, since it was true because Abraham was counted righteous before the sign, circumcision, since that is true, since we have been justified, that you and I can be justified by faith, that we can have peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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So the only way that anyone, Jew or Gentile, then or now, can have peace with God, can be right with God, is by faith in Jesus Christ.
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That it has never been by law keeping. It has never been by sacrificing animals.
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These were shadows. Jesus is the substance. It's always been by faith.
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I mentioned last week how Abraham had two seeds. That two seeds was coming from Abraham. You had the physical seed and the spiritual seed.
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And that you can be a physical seed of Abraham and not be the people of God, but you can be a spiritual seed of Abraham, someone who has the faith of Abraham and be the people of God.
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But you can also be the physical seed of Abraham and have faith in God, and you are the spiritual seed as well.
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That it's always been about the spiritual seed, those who believe God. That is how we are made right with him.
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It's always been by faith. I tell people all the time when I do a lot of debating, they say, oh, but you're a religion.
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It's new. It's 2 ,000 years old. I said, no, I got the same religion as Abraham. The same way
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Abraham was saved is the same way that I'm saved. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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You and I today, when we believe God, we are counted righteousness. And as we transition,
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Abraham went from a point of doubting God, concerning his offspring.
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Remember, he says, all I have is Eleazar to believe in God, to believe in the promise.
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Point number two, the preparation of the covenant. Genesis 15, 7 through 11.
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And he said to him, I am the
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Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.
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But he said, oh Lord, how, listen to this, how am I to know that I shall possess it?
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He said to him, bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
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And he brought them, he brought him all these things, cut them in half and laid each half against the other.
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But he did not cut the birds in half. And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses,
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Abram drove them away. Now what's being described here is an ancient way of how covenants were made.
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So at this time, when two parties came together to agree and make a covenant, they would slaughter animals.
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They, both of them would slaughter animals and they would separate that, it would just be like a, on each side of like an owl.
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If you can picture this, this walkway, this owl, and on this side was slaughtered animals, and then this side was slaughter animals.
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And the two would come into agreement by holding hands and walking through the slaughtered animals.
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And what they were saying was, if I do not fulfill my side of the covenant, may what happened to these animals happen to me.
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So that's what's being described here. Notice he says, how am
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I to know that I will possess it? Abraham says, how am
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I to know? And God says, bring me a heifer, bring me these animals.
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We're going to cut them in half. We're going to make a covenant. You will know by way of covenant is what
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God is telling him. And as we transition, notice this, Abram alone cuts the animals in two.
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God does not descend and help him cut the animals. Abraham alone cuts the animals.
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Now that's going to be important here in a minute. Point number three, a prophecy concerning the offspring.
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Genesis 15, 12 through six. As the sun went down, a deep sleep fell on Abram.
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And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. And the Lord said to Abram, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years.
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But I will bring judgment on that nation that they serve, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions.
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And as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace, and shall be buried in the old age.
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And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquities of the
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Amorites have not yet been complete. Abraham, notice, so things to notice,
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Abraham has been put into a deep sleep. So Abraham slaughters the animals. A deep sleep comes over him.
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God reveals to Abraham about the enslavement of his offspring, his seed to Egypt, as well as their exodus.
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Now we all know the story, right? Abraham has two sons. I mean,
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Abraham has a son. Well, he has two sons, which is Isaac and Ishmael, but Isaac is the son of the promise.
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So it's through Isaac that this covenant goes through. Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau, but the promise and the covenants go through Jacob.
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Jacob has 12 sons. We're not going to name them, right? That's just too many to name.
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But the ruler's staff goes through Judah. David comes from Judah, Jesus from David to Judah.
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All right, so we know the story of this lineages, but Jacob has 12 sons, and one of the sons gets sold into slavery, and that this son
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Joseph raises up, and he becomes like second to Pharaoh, but then when
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Joseph dies, another Pharaoh raises up, and he enslaves the Hebrew people.
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So the Lord, in the beginning of this covenant, before Abraham even has any children, he tells him that his offspring are going to go into slavery.
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So it means every choice that his descendants make ultimately lead to this point that takes place of Joseph being sold into slavery.
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Joseph raising up to be second in Pharaoh, and for that Pharaoh to die after Joseph, to raise up a
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Pharaoh who knows not Joseph, that enslaves his people. Like these things have to happen.
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All these free will choices have to happen. It's a prophecy of his offspring, how they are going to be enslaved to Egypt, but how
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God was going to rescue them from the hands of Pharaoh, and he was going to bring them out with great possession.
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And as we transition, he is telling him this by way of a dream, by way of a vision, because Abraham is in a deep sleep.
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Now I wish I could go through this and break it down more, but for sake of time, we just cannot.
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So point number four, the covenant. The covenant is found in Genesis chapter 15, verses 17 through 18.
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And when the sun had gone down, and while it was dark, behold, a smoking pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces.
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On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your offspring,
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I will give this land, from the rivers of Egypt to the great rivers of the river of Aphrates.
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Things to notice. Notice what you don't see. You don't see
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Abraham awake and walking through the pieces. You don't see
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Abraham and God hold hands and walk through these animals.
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You don't see that. But what you do see is a theophany. You see
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God come down as a, as a, he appears as a smoking pot and a flaming torch.
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God appears as a smoking, as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch.
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And he himself, by himself, walks through these animals that have been slaughtered.
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And in doing so, he is promising that he will give to Abraham all that he has promised.
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That he will give to the Abraham and to his offspring, the land of Canaan.
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And if he doesn't, then what has happened to these animals will happen to him.
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So if you can imagine, if God would have came down and grabbed hands with Abraham and they both walked through these, these animals,
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God is saying, what has happened to these animals, if I do not fulfill my promises, my covenant, then these things will happen to me.
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Abraham is saying, Abraham at this time is saying, what happened to these animals, if I do not fulfill my part of the covenant will happen to me.
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And that takes us to our next section of section of scripture, Genesis chapter 17,
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Genesis chapter 17, verses one through 14. So the
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Abrahamic covenant, listen to this, although it is a covenant of works, do this and you do this and I'll do this.
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It's a covenant of works. It promises a covenant that is better than what it promises a better covenant.
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It promises the covenant of grace. There seems to be an unconditional and a conditional side of the covenant, the covenant of grace, which we'll get to in a few weeks, maybe the covenant of grace is, listen, the covenant of grace.
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If you don't forget this, if this is all you remember, fine. The covenant of grace is the covenant of works fulfilled.
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The covenant of grace is the covenant of works fulfilled. Verses one through eight shows us the covenant that God made with Abraham, but it also shows us what
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God promised to do no matter what. So as we read this, it's going to tell us, it's going to show us the covenant and it's going to show us what he's promised to do.
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Verses one through eight. Yeah, one through eight, excuse me.
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When Abraham was 99 years old, the
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Lord Adonai Yahweh appeared to Abraham and said, I am
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God almighty. El Shaddai, I am El Shaddai. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and multiply you greatly.
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And Abraham fell on his face and said to him, and God said to him, behold, my covenant is with you.
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And you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called
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Abraham, but you shall be called Abraham for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
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And I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you.
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I will establish my covenant between me, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be
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God to you and to your offspring. I will give to your offspring after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possessions.
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And I will be their God. Remember that God alone passed through the animals.
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And because he did so, he must fulfill his side of the covenant.
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Genesis chapter 17, verses one through eight, as you, as you walk through it, the things to notice would be in verses one and two so far is that God says to him, walk before me and be blameless.
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So imagine that God comes to Abraham and he says, walk before me and be blameless.
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The word blameless means perfect without blemish, complete, full, without spot, undefiled, and upright.
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Whoa, hold on now. Hold on. Blameless?
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Perfect? Listen, Abraham, in Abraham at this time, in and of himself, can not do these things.
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Though right now, as he is speaking here, as God is speaking to him, as he is telling him these things,
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Abraham is these things. Abraham, in and of himself, cannot do these things.
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He cannot be perfect. He cannot be upright. But as God is telling him these things, he is perfect.
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He is blameless. And he is upright. You say, how is that? Well, we can't forget what happened in the previous chapter, chapter 15, verses five and six.
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And he brought him outside and said, look towards the heavens and number the stars if you're able to number them.
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And then he said to him, so shall your offspring be, verse six key, justification by faith.
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And he believed the Lord and he counted to him as righteousness.
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Righteousness, that he was justified, that he was made right before God.
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And so as God's telling him to, to, to, to, to walk before him, to be, excuse me, to walk before him and be blameless, he's already these things because he believed
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God and he was counted as righteousness. And I would also add in verse two, where it talks about and keep my covenant, verse two, it says, and I will make my covenant between me and you that this has already happened.
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It happened in chapter 15. And in chapter verse three, it goes on to, to, to, to, to, to say what
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I just said. It says, Abraham fell on his face and God said to him, behold, my covenant is with you.
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Pointing back to the previous, when he made the covenant, he already has established his covenant.
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Abraham is already walking blameless before him because he believed
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God. And that's what the new Testament does for us today. It tells us to walk before God blameless, to be perfect.
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Listen, we cannot do that in and of ourselves. We need the righteousness of Christ.
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I do not want to be standing before God clothed in my own righteousness or clothed in the righteousness of the unrighteousness of Adam.
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I want to stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ. I want to be positionally righteous right now before God by believing, by trusting in what
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God has done for me through Christ. In this, I want you to also notice the five
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I will statements. He says, God speaking, I will make you exceedingly fruitful.
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I will make you into nations. I will establish my covenant between me and your offspring.
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I will give to you and your offspring after you, the land, I will be their
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God. This is what God has promised to do in the covenant.
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That if he does not do these things and what has happened to those animals will happen to him.
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That's what he is testifying. That's what he is. That is what the
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Bible is letting us see here. That if God does not fulfill these promises, then what has happened to them, animals will happen to God.
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This is what God has promised. Now in Genesis chapter 12, verse seven, the
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Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land to your offspring.
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I will give this land speaking of the land of Canaan so that he was going to, to make him exceedingly fruitful by making a nation come from him.
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I will make you into nations. That it's not even going to be just Jews. Nation is more than just the
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Hebrew people. Right here where it says
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Abraham, where he changes his name from Abram to Abraham. The word Abraham means father of a multitude.
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His name declares what he is going to be, the father of a multitude of nations.
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That it's not just going to be a singular people known as the Hebrews. That he was going to make him exceedingly fruitful by multiplying him into nations.
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That he was going to establish a covenant between him and his offspring. And we see that these things he has done.
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And that he was going to give to him and his offspring a land, the land of Canaan.
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And that he would be their God. So we see, we know in hindsight that God has fulfilled these promises.
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God has fulfilled these promises. And so Genesis chapter 12, verse seven, he tells him he's going to give him a land.
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Galatians, turn your attention to Galatians chapter three. We read this earlier in Sunday school. Galatians chapter three, verse 16.
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He says, now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say into offsprings referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring, who is
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Christ. So when it says that to your offspring, that I will give you this land, ultimately it's not speaking about the descendants, the multitude descendants of Abraham, but it's speaking about Jesus Christ.
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Romans chapter four, verse 13,
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Romans four 13. For the promises, for the promises to Abraham, for the promise to Abraham and to his offspring, notice the singular, that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
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Verse 14, for if the adherence of the law, for if it was, for if the adherence of the law, who are the hearers, let me read that again, sorry.
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For if it is the adherence of the law, who are to be the heirs, faith is nullified and the promise is void.
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So the only, it's telling us that that if you could keep the law to actually get this land, then the promise given by faith is void.
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The promise given by faith is void. And what again, what it's doing, it's speaking of the two offsprings, that Abraham, that in Abraham's one seed,
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I mean, in this seed, there's two offspring, the physical seed and the spiritual seed.
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The physical seed is through the law. The spiritual seed is by faith. The physical seed of Abraham were under the law.
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The physical, the spiritual seed of Abraham, you and I, we're under faith.
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We're under grace. And as we transition, what we just read was the unconditional.
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God will fulfill his promise. And our next section, we will look at the conditional side of the covenant.
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The conditional side of the covenant is better known as the sign, the sign of the covenant.
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Beginning in verse nine, Genesis chapter 17, beginning in verse nine.
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And God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant. Notice from before verses one through eight, we have the
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I wills. I will do this. I will do this. I will do this. I will do this. God declaring what he is going to do.
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Now, Abraham, the conditional side, now this is telling him what he is supposed to do.
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So if they would have locked hands and walked down this aisle together, this aisle of slaughtered animals, this is what
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Abraham is to hold up. As for you, you shall keep my covenant and your offspring after you throughout their generation.
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And this is the covenant which you shall keep between me, you and your offspring after you.
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Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
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He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised every male throughout your generation, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.
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Both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised.
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So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
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Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people.
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He has broken my covenant. The sign of the covenant is circumcision.
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Like there's no debate, right? There's no debate. The sign of the covenant is circumcision.
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A sign in the flesh, a visible mark, a cutting of the flesh.
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The condition side of the covenant is circumcision. Again, God said,
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I will do this. I will be your God. I will bless you. I will give you a land. You will do this.
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You will keep my covenant by circumcising.
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That's just how that's what it is. It is what it is, right? I think that's what the people say now.
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It is what it is. This is what God has laid out. If anyone is not circumcised it tells you that they are cut off.
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They are removed from the people. They are no longer a part of the people.
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To enter the covenant of Abraham, you had to be born. And after you were born, you took the sign.
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If you were a male child, you took the sign, which is circumcision. Now, here's where the
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New Testament comes in and flips that around. Paul in Galatians chapter five seems to lump circumcision together with the whole law.
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So go to Galatians chapter five. Listen to this.
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Verse one, verse one, for freedom
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Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
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Speaking about circumcision, speaking about the law. Look, I, Paul, say to you, if you accept circumcision,
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Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again that every man who accepts circumcision, that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
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You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the works of the law, you have fallen from grace.
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For therefore, through the spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
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For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
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You were run and well who hindered you from obeying the truth. This persuasion is not from him who calls you a little leaven, leavens the whole lump.
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I have confidence in the Lord that you will not take no other view. And the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
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Verse 11, but if I, brothers, still preached circumcision, why am
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I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.
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Listen to this, verse 12, I wish those who unsettled you, speaking of those who are preaching circumcision, would emasculate themselves.
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I wish they would turn to be women where they were unable to teach, for you were called to freedom.
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Brothers only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Remember that the circumcision is a sign in the flesh, but through love serve one another.
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For the whole law, listen, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that no one consumes you. I look back at verse one.
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It says, for freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again a yoke of slavery.
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Do not submit yourself to the yoke of slavery, to being under the bondage of circumcision, the covenant that God made with Abraham that day.
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Do not put yourself under that bondage. Jesus Christ has come.
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The offspring of Abraham has come. He has fulfilled that promise.
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We have God who takes a people from among the people and he establishes the kingdom to establish his covenant.
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And he gives these covenant people a sign in their flesh. And this sign is a precursor.
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It's a forerunner of the law. The sign of circumcision.
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And the sign was a summation. The sign of circumcision is the summation of the law.
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And that that promise, that the law promised the blessings if you keep it.
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If you keep the law, it says in the Bible, it says in Exodus, it says in Deuteronomy, if you keep the law, you will live in the land.
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Canaan. Keep the law, live in the land. Break the law, and I'm going to remove you from the land.
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The law gave a promise of blessings. Keep it. Keep the law, keep the land.
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Break the law, you're being removed from the land. And we see that that happened over and over again.
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The Jews were taken over by people. Now, in closing, I want to go back to a point that I made earlier.
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I said that the covenant of grace is the covenant of works fulfilled.
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The covenant of grace, which we will dive into in the weeks to come, the covenant of grace is the covenant of works fulfilled.
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Remember, Abraham did not pass through the animals.
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Why? Because he was under a deep sleep. Only God did as a theophany passed through the slaughtered animals.
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And in doing so, he is saying that if he does not keep his part of the covenant, that what happened to these slaughtered animals would happen to him.
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Remember, they did that in order to at this time, they would hold hands and they would walk through it together.
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Abraham did not walk through that slaughter, the slaughter pieces, those animals that were slaughtered, but only
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God. But also he, God, is saying that if Abraham and his offspring do not keep this covenant, that God would come down from heaven and become like these animals.
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I think that's something that we miss. God is saying he's the only one walking through this thing. He has taken upon himself both curses, that if he doesn't keep his part of the covenant, which he did, then he would be slaughtered like these animals.
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But if Abraham and his descendants doesn't keep this part of the covenant, God is saying, I will still come down and I will take that curse upon myself.
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Ladies and gentlemen, that's where the gospel comes in. That's where the gospel comes in. Hebrews chapter five tells us that Jesus, that God did not know
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Hebrews chapter two, beginning in verse five, tells us that God did not send angels into the world to hypotosso to subdue the world, but he sent his son into the world in the likeness of, of a human flesh and that he had to be a
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Hebrew in order to take the priesthood. He had to become the priest, the high priest, in order to make a sacrifice.
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He has to become a high priest in order to atone for sins. That the purpose of Jesus coming into the world, what did
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John the Baptist say? John the Baptist saw him coming and he says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
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That Jesus, not only was he the high priest who offers the sacrifice, but he was the sacrifice that he, that God and the person of Jesus Christ came into this world, born of a virgin who suffered under the hands of Pontius Pilate, who lived a life we could not live in, who died the death that we should die.
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And on that cross, the mercy of God and the wrath of God met for the first time. And that the mercy of God that you and I do not deserve can come to us by faith alone in Jesus Christ.
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And the wrath of God that we deserve, because we have not kept that covenant, we deserve to be separated, to be cut in two like those animals.
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God himself and the person of Christ took our place. That as the axe of God's wrath is coming down to destroy us, to cut us in half,
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Jesus on that cross took our punishment. That's what the gospel is about. Jesus live in the life we could not live.
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Jesus loved God. He loved neighbor. You have not loved God. You have not loved neighbor. Even though he has loved
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God and loved neighbor, he himself stood in our place and he took the punishment that we deserve.
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He became like those animals that were slaughtered. And that's what the gospel is about.
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We're looking at the Bible in a historical, redemptive way of, in way of an interpretation.
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We do not want to miss the forest from the trees. Jesus says that all, that everything written in the law of Moses, the prophets and the
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Psalms have to be fulfilled and they were about him. And so next week, well next week,
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Pastor Cowles preaching. Am I correct? And then two weeks from now, we'll pick back up where we are.
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But I just, I plead with you to, to, to, to, to, as you're reading the text, as you're, as you're walking through this and as you see something that says, be perfect for he is perfect for you to say, how am
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I to do this? And to come to the understanding that if your faith is in Christ, you are this, and it's not of your own doing.
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It is the gift of God by faith alone in Jesus Christ.
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I am available to anyone who wants to talk, Pastor Cowles as well, but please join me in prayer.
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Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for loving us. Lord, I pray that your blessing be upon this congregation.
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Lord, I pray, Lord, as we prepare our hearts to take part in the
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Lord's supper, Lord, that you bless this bread and this wine, that you will use it for the growth of our sanctification, that you will use it to grow us in holiness.
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And Lord, as we leave this building today, and as we fellowship with unbelievers,
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Lord, that they will see the light of Jesus Christ in us. And they will ask us about the hope that we have in us.
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Lord, give us opportunity, every one of us in here, give us opportunity this week to be your witness in Jesus name.